-Mr. Shahnazaryan, you were born in Khndzoresk, Syunik. Could you tell us about your choice of profession and your move from your native village to Yerevan?

-When I was 6-7 years old, living in Khndzoresk village, our country was in extremely harsh and complex conditions. The liberation movement was ongoing, and in our village, as in all other settlements in Armenia, intense battles were taking place. Groups of freedom fighters and police were forming, who were essentially fighting for people’s, the nation’s, and the homeland’s right to life. At that time, there wasn’t, as such, a legislative framework or rights derived from law. There was one right – the right of force, and the executors of this right were these “fedayeen” (freedom fighters). Based on these perceptions, I developed a desire to protect people’s rights, which at that time was only possible through these people’s methods. The desire to protect rights began in childhood. I developed an aspiration to become a lawyer.

-What was your feeling after presiding over your first court session? And, if you remember, please tell us about the case that impressed you the most?

-When I was introduced as a judge, on the very day of my appointment, I was assigned two serious motions, from a criminal aspect, although I had been appointed as a civil court judge. One concerned the application of detention as a preventive measure for a high-ranking official, and the other was about applying detention for a person involved in drug trafficking.

Why do I consider this case important? In that court session, the person’s mother was an acting judge, and the mother-in-law was a former prosecutor – incidentally, they were very well-known people. I was in a moral-psychological, emotional, and legal struggle. Was I doing the right thing? I realized that I needed to act based on legal requirements. The first contradictions and overcoming them occurred within the framework of this case.

-Mr. Shahnazaryan, have you ever experienced various pressures as a judge?

-Well, typically, pressures can be direct and indirect. Let’s start with direct pressures: telephone justice, illegal interference, and so on. These are criminally punishable acts. In my life, since 2014, I have never experienced direct pressure. I can’t say why I haven’t, but I can assert where this comes from. When you remain faithful to your behavioral principles and demonstrate through your conduct that pressure is pointless because justice will be administered as it should be, automatically such pressures cease to exist.

-You are the chairman of the Ethics and Disciplinary Commission of the General Assembly of Judges. Today, the executive also has the authority to submit motions for disciplinary action against judges. International organizations have repeatedly insisted that this executive power should be terminated. The executive, in turn, states that the commission in its current composition cannot be impartial. The Minister also noted that manifestations of corporatism must be excluded. In your opinion, can the commission make impartial decisions today?

-It would be absurd for me to say that the commission makes partial decisions. It makes impartial decisions. Now, to convince the public that my conclusion about this impartial decision-making is truthful and fair, I need to provide certain information, reveal certain circumstances that may or may not be known to the public.

We don’t make decisions detached from reality – I’m not saying the ministry does, I’m just explaining why it’s perceived this way from an impartiality perspective. For example, if a judge has 4,000 cases in their proceedings and has committed a procedural violation, delayed for several months, for instance, in organizing the process of sending judicial acts, in this context we also evaluate the objective situation, where the state has undertaken the obligation to do everything possible to prevent such a level of workload. Now, if this workload exists, can we blame the judge for all of this? There is also a question of absence of fault here.

Even if the commission makes a corresponding decision on a collegial principle, one shouldn’t look only at the commission’s decision, because some decisions are accompanied by such special opinions.

Details in the video.

Mariam Antonyan

He says that painting is his element, he has loved doing it since childhood, at first he drew people, animals, nature, and then when they moved to Yerevan, he attended painting classes, over the years communicating with well-known people in this field.

He remembers his teachers with love and pride, telling about everything he learned from them.

“Art cleanses your inner world, I have been to quite many places, seen high-level museums – Paris, America, Rome, Vienna, that also influences, that is pure art, where a person grows. Life and art are both similar and different: if a person doesn’t have art inside them, life passes differently,” – notes Shugarov.

Details in the video.

Internet traffic refers to the volume of data that is exchanged through the internet network. It can include downloaded and uploaded data, such as website loading, file downloads, video streams, voice calls and other online activities.

To verify the authenticity of the information and receive clarification, Iravaban.net submitted an inquiry to the National Security Service.

In its response letter, the NSS referred to Article 33 of the Constitution, which states that freedom and confidentiality of communication may be restricted only by law for the purposes of state security, country’s economic well-being, prevention or detection of crimes, protection of public order, health and morality or fundamental rights and freedoms of others.

Article 242, Part 2 of the Criminal Procedure Code was also quoted, as well as Article 34, Part 1 of the “Law on Operational Intelligence Activities”. According to these, digital, including telephone communication surveillance secret investigative action and the namesake operational intelligence measure is carried out respectively by investigator’s instruction with court decision or by motion of operational intelligence body with court permission.

It is noted that according to Article 232 of the Criminal Procedure Code, data related to internet communication and not revealing their content are also obtained exclusively by court decision.

“According to Article 26, Part 3 of the “Law on Operational Intelligence Activities”, when implementing digital, including telephone communication surveillance operational intelligence measure, telecommunication organizations are obliged to provide technical systems at the request of competent authorities and create other necessary conditions for implementing operational intelligence measures,” – was stated in response to our inquiry.

The NSS response does not confirm the fact of installing surveillance devices, but it also does not deny the circulated information. Nevertheless, state control should not be unlimited: it should be implemented within the framework of law with transparent mechanisms and judicial oversight. It is necessary to ensure that collected data is not used for abuse or restriction of citizens’ freedoms.

Citizens and civil society organizations should be able to monitor how the state applies control mechanisms. Independent supervisory bodies are needed to oversee the actions of state structures.

It is necessary to create clear legislative frameworks that will allow effectively fighting against threats while protecting citizens’ fundamental rights.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Mariam Antonyan

The Prosecutor General’s Office demands to confiscate the following in favor of the Republic of Armenia from Armen Sakapetyan and affiliated persons:

• 0.42% of the apartment at 15-2 G. Sundukyan St., Arabkir, Yerevan
• 1.75% of apartment 11, building 3, Sasna Tsrer Street, Davtashen, Yerevan
• 15.44% of parking spaces 8 and 53 of building 88, 58/20 K. Ulnetsu Street, Kanaker-Zeytun, Yerevan
• 18.58% of apartment 29, building 58/20, K. Ulnetsu Street, Kanaker-Zeytun, Yerevan
• 16.44% of real estate at 14 Olimpavan Street, Tsaghkadzor, Kotayk
• 4.72% of HONDA ENP vehicle
• 0.01% of LAND ROVER DEFENDER SE 3.0 vehicle
• 10.33% of current market value of real estate at 21/2 Tumanyan, Center, Yerevan
• 37.7% of current market value of land plot in Vanand community, Armavir
• 20.5% of current market value of land plot in Artamet community, Armavir
• 0.07% of “ESTATE INVESTMENT AND DEVELOPMENT” LLC
• Apartment 29, building 58/20, K. Ulnetsu Street, Kanaker-Zeytun, Yerevan

To confiscate from Armen Sakapetyan in favor of the Republic of Armenia:

• 59,608,302 AMD as remaining illegal funds
• 246,204,682 AMD, which is not justified by legal income, has illegal origin, has been transferred to a bona fide acquirer or cannot be identified and confiscated (…)

According to Iravaban.net, during this session, the respondent side continued to direct questions to the plaintiff regarding the presented evidence.

Armen Harutyunyan, representative of respondent Armen Sakapetyan, asked Karlen Apinyan, economist of the PG’s Department for Confiscation of Illegally Acquired Property, about the tabulated data. For example, at the end of 2006, his client’s alleged illegal income (cash) amount changed from 500,000 to 406,325 drams, asking how this change occurred and on what basis the reduction process took place.

Apinyan said that during that year there were account replenishments and cash withdrawals, and as a result of these transactions, the amount decreased, with some parts being reflected in deposits and other payments.

It was noted that during this period, the account was replenished with 4,818,000 drams, of which 4,599,000 was considered legal cash, while 219,033 drams was considered illegal non-cash according to the calculation methodology.

The parties also discussed the 500,000 drams belonging to Armen Sakapetyan in 2006, which was viewed as illegal, with 81,000 of the amount accepted as non-cash expenses, leaving a total of 410,000 drams.

Armen Sakapetyan inquired why the sum of these two should not equal 500,000 drams, and additionally, if there was an illegal 410,000 drams, whether a different percentage threshold was applied to next year’s expenses or not.

Karlen Apinyan responded: “We don’t consider expenses as illegal on a percentage basis, but rather based on which account the expense was made from at the time of the transaction and whether there were sufficient legal funds in that account, and if not, what portion was illegal.”

According to him, there is also a currency difference issue in this case. In 2006, there were dollar deposits, and the authorized body sees the account replenishment process. If an account is replenished with amount x, they use the bank’s specified exchange rate at that moment with the current monetary expression indicator.

“We don’t have an issue with cash; we note it in monetary expression at that exact rate at that moment. That is, if you withdraw cash or make some non-cash USD transaction, we convert that transaction to AMD at that day’s rate and perform the calculation in drams at that rate.

The problem arises with non-cash transactions when the movement has occurred in foreign currency, but we have a negative or positive difference in monetary expression,” he said.

He noted that for cash withdrawals, they determined the amount using the exchange rate set by the bank. A discussion took place regarding transactions made during this period, deposit investments, currencies, and their calculations.

Respondent Armen Sakapetyan replied to the plaintiff that the calculation made has its negative consequences: “The currency calculation wasn’t carried out based on objective data, and in this case in 2006, if we look, my foreign currency negative difference or loss amounts to about 300,000 drams, and as a result of being short 300,000 drams, for example, you’ve recognized part of the Sundukyan Street apartment as illegal, some small percentage.”

Nelli Ter-Torosyan, prosecutor of the Department for Confiscation of Illegally Acquired Property, said that the authorized body has an obligation to determine the correlations between known income and expenses, and the method, way, and formula for determining these have been granted by the legislator: “You had a deposit in foreign currency, you invested it, then repaid it, the authorized body considered it in monetary expression at the time of repayment, this is an approach issue that may not correspond to objective reality, but the authorized body has no other data about when USD was converted to AMD until the next property acquisition.

…If you have data that doesn’t correspond to the logic formed by the authorized body, if you have evidence, cite those documents, justify with them that the currency exchange took place on such and such date, the authorized body will consider it calculated at that date’s exchange rate, convert it to drams and apply it to the corresponding property acquisition.”

Armen Sakapetyan’s next question concerned the 620,000 AMD cash received from his mother in 2021, asking what this amount was. The plaintiff side indicated they would review and answer this question additionally. Sakapetyan also emphasized that the question is being asked because his mother had no income other than the amount given by his sister and pension.

The next question concerned the sale of 50% share in “ESTATE INVESTMENT AND DEVELOPMENT” LLC, of which 25% was sold to Artak Andreasyan and 25% to Karen Galstyan, with no data available about the latter transaction. The plaintiff side also stated they would review this additionally.

Sakapetyan’s other question was related to the activities carried out on 70 hectares of land in Mrgashat community of Armavir region. The acquisition of the territory was considered legal, and agricultural activity was carried out – alfalfa cultivation. He inquired which facts would be considered sufficient by the plaintiff side to present the income received from this activity.

Nelli Ter-Torosyan said that the community leader has an obligation to maintain records, and appropriate certification should be presented regarding the performance of activities.

Lawyer Armen Harutyunyan said that at this stage, the main questions were exhausted, and the respondent side will ask other questions after taking a position on the discussed issues, for which he requested 1 month.

The court granted the motion, and the next court session will take place on March 19.

Mariam Shahnazaryan

The public discussion was attended by representatives from the National Assembly, Ministry of Finance, Commission on Prevention of Corruption, Human Rights Defender’s Office, and RA Anti-Corruption Committee, as well as CSO and media representatives and experts.

The public discussion was opened by Movses Aristakesyan, President of the “Economic Law Center” NGO and Project Manager of the sub-grant project, who thanked the attendees for accepting the invitation and wished for an active and engaged discussion.

In total, 34 people participated in the public discussion. The opening remarks were made by Karen Zadoyan, President of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association NGO and Project Manager of the “Budgets for Citizens” project. He presented the project’s objective, work completed within its framework, and the newly created www.budgets.am budget knowledge exchange platform.

The participants were also welcomed by Hrachya Zakoyan, Acting Rector of the Armenian National Agrarian University.

The first speaker at the discussion was Movses Aristakesyan, Manager of the “Justice Sector Budget Monitoring and Analysis” sub-grant project and President of the “Economic Law Center” NGO.

Movses Aristakesyan presented on the topic “Implementation of International Participatory Budgeting Experience in Armenia.”

According to him, many countries’ governments have developed and implemented numerous concepts, strategic and sectoral programs to address issues related to transparency and accountability in public finance spending, improving management efficiency, and avoiding corruption risks in their use.

Constructive cooperation between authorities and civil society organizations (hereinafter CSOs) is highly valued in this work.

International experience, including that of Armenia, has shown that civil society initiative and capacity can face legal, institutional, and political obstacles.

These, combined with the general lack of publicly available information about budget issues, seriously hinder CSOs’ efforts to participate in discussions about the use of state resources.

From this perspective, international experience suggests that different policies are mainly applied in various countries worldwide to address these cooperation issues between authorities and CSOs in public finance management.

According to Aristakesyan, Armenian CSOs’ participation in the budgetary process is not yet very active. Thus, according to the report on discussions with interested civil society organizations in areas under the jurisdiction of applicant bodies regarding budget applications within the framework of the 2024-2026 MTEF draft (including RA 2024 state budget) development work, the discussions of the 2024-2026 MTEF draft are characterized by the following data.

Nune Arabachyan and Angela Kocharyan, representatives of the “Economic Law Center” NGO, presented a report on “The RA Justice Sector Simplified Budget for 2025 (based on project data).”

The RA 2025 state budget has been approved with revenues of 2,837.6 billion drams and expenditures of 3,441.6 billion drams by the law “On the State Budget of the Republic of Armenia for 2025.” The state budget deficit has been set at 604.0 billion drams.

Compared to the previous year, budget funds allocated to sector programs in the RA 2025 state budget expenditures have decreased by 0.16 percentage points and constitute 2.19 percent of state budget expenditures, compared to an average of 2.51 percent in 2020-2024. In other words, the share of budgetary funds allocated to the Sector in the 2025 state budget expenditures has decreased by 0.32 percent.

The public discussion participants asked numerous questions, which were answered by the speakers. Participants made speeches and expressed their satisfaction with the initiative and proper conduct of the public discussion.

The public discussion was concluded by Movses Aristakesyan, who thanked everyone for their positions and engaged discussion. He expressed hope that future cooperation would continue to bring this sub-grant project to the best results, which would serve as a foundation for making this initiative continuous.

This material has been prepared with the financial support of the European Union, within the framework of the “Justice Sector Budget Monitoring and Analysis” project implemented by the “Economic Law Center” NGO under a sub-grant provided through the “Budgets for Citizens” project operated by a consortium led by the Armenian Lawyers’ Association NGO.

The “Economic Law Center” NGO is responsible for the content, and it does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

She says she has a higher education but cannot find work: “I participate in interviews, but they’re just formalities. I have more experience, I’m proficient in everything, I even know trades. Then I applied to the unified social service to learn a trade, supposedly to work for 3 months, but it’s completely false.”

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The “Strengthening Protection Mechanisms for the Rights of Forcibly Displaced Persons from Nagorno-Karabakh” project is implemented by the Armenian Lawyers Association in collaboration with the “Harmony” Shushi Women’s NGO, within the framework of the “Monitoring Justice Sector Reforms in Armenia” project (www.juremonia.am) funded by the European Union.

The overall objective of the project is to promote the integration of forcibly displaced persons from Artsakh in their new communities of residence in Armenia by strengthening mechanisms for protecting their rights, raising their level of legal awareness, access to justice, and protection of their rights.

This publication was prepared with the financial support of the European Union. The Armenian Lawyers Association NGO is responsible for the content, and it does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

Details in the video.

Although the concept of “hate speech” is not clearly defined at present, nevertheless, both criminal and civil codes establish measures of liability for the distribution of materials aimed at promoting hatred.

For more details, see our prepared video.

According to Iravaban.net, defense attorneys Aramayis Hayrapetyan, Hovhannes Gharakeshishyan, Manuk Melkonyan, and defendants Armen Matevosyan, Gevorg Ghukasyan, Sasha Zakaryan, Spartak Ghukasyan, and Vardan Ghukasyan were present at the court session.

Note that the defense has objected to video and photo recording of the session from the beginning, and at this session, the presiding judge announced that it would not be permitted.

Written evidence was examined, presented by Shirak Region Prosecutor Taguhi Harutyunyan, who was involved in the case at this session.

The written evidence pertained to inspection protocols of various areas in Gyumri city. According to the evidence from 2021, Gyumri’s central park was inspected.

The protocol presented the general appearance of the area, including the buildings present there, including the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies building.

A section of the wall there was partially collapsed, most attractions were not operational, causing the road in that section to be in poor condition. No renovation work had been carried out in the area, only the TUMO Center building was being used.

Defendant Vardan Ghukasyan’s attorney Aramayis Hayrapetyan stated that there are concrete structure buildings next to the center in the area adjacent to the park, which the state has considered legal: “What’s essential here is that the oasis is not made with concrete structures, it’s some kind of structure assembled with metal constructions and is not considered real estate.

The fountain located in front of the oasis has been there for years, meaning that concrete section discovered during the site inspection was from Soviet times.”

According to him, the circumstance of building that concrete section in the park is not related to either Vardan Ghukasyan or Gevorg Ghukasyan. An inspection was carried out on Rustaveli Street in Gyumri, where there was a stone building with a green area on the right side.

Vardan Ghukasyan’s defender declared that the inspection protocol did not mention at all for which criminal case it was conducted. The defense challenged the evidence presented regarding the presence of a green area in the territory, with the defender emphasizing that there have always been built structures in that area.

According to him, it’s incorrect to draw a handwritten line on the cadastral map and mark it as a green area, thus the study was not properly conducted.

Note that one of the written pieces of evidence was not legible; the presiding judge said that this evidence is not subject to publication, if necessary, the investigator who compiled the inspection protocol will appear in court and read what he wrote.

The inspection of 31 Tigran Mets Street in Gyumri noted that there was a free area that was not limited by structures of neighboring built-up areas, while other land plots were burdened with other buildings.

Regarding this evidence, defendant Vardan Ghukasyan’s defender stated that his client has no connection to the mentioned area, it was alienated solely based on the conclusion given by specialists.

Defendant Vardan Ghukasyan also made a statement: “The municipality owns the city’s master plan, it had the right to make changes, including the relevant documents for these structures – are these documents that the Prosecutor’s Office has seized present in any of them, aren’t these documents in any of them? If not, I’m saying loudly – then the documents have been deliberately removed because that’s how it is, the municipality has the right to make changes under Article 60.”

According to him, in 2006, when the city’s master plan was adopted, it was written that it was subject to change; in 2023, they presented a new master plan, which gave most areas permission for building construction, for example, the Sayat-Nova area was given only for construction, for building residential buildings.

Ghukasyan stated that the 2023 master plan should be compared with the case materials: “I suggest involving the city’s chief architect in this case, let him come and provide explanations, he has the master plan and can present all explanations in detail.

…At that time they had it, the city’s master plan was in one place, and they gave the conclusions, today blame the mayor for that? The mayor wasn’t aware of anything, he should come and explain, not that I’m throwing it on them, but that their explanations are one hundred percent there, they couldn’t do anything wrong.”

The examination of written evidence continued in court.

Recall that according to case materials, Vardan Ghukasyan has been charged on the following grounds:

From November 24, 1999, to October 12, 2012, as the head of Gyumri municipal community, in accordance with Article 37 of the RA Law on “Local Self-Government,” he exercised the following mandatory powers in the field of urban development, among others:

• prepared the draft master plan of the community settlement and the community land zoning and use scheme, through the respective regional governor, after coordinating with the state authorized body, submitted it to the community council for approval within a one-month period
• prepared detailed zoning planning, land management and development projects for separate sections and urban complexes of the community, submitted them to the community council for approval
• prepared the community’s urban development charter, submitted it to the community council for approval
• provided architectural and planning assignments to developers, coordinated architectural and construction projects
• granted construction (demolition) permits in accordance with established procedures, formalized construction completion certificates, alienated community-owned property through auction in accordance with the master plan, land zoning and use scheme
• submitted draft decisions on setting the starting price of alienated property to the council for approval
• made decisions in accordance with the procedure established by the community council on leasing and reclaiming community-owned property in accordance with the community master plan, land zoning and use scheme, as well as lease payments set by the council
• prevented and suspended unauthorized land seizures and construction, immediately took appropriate actions by his decision and ensured the elimination of their consequences within a one-month period in accordance with the law, exercising the following state-delegated powers in this field: in accordance with the master plan and land zoning and use scheme, allocated, reclaimed, leased, and in cases established by law, alienated state-owned lands located in the community territory only according to contracts signed by him.

By Mariam Shahnazaryan

“I’ve tried hard to find work. I found jobs, worked, and left. Now I’m working at an iron factory. I need a second job so I can pay my utilities and rent.”

She notes that problems have arisen with her passport.

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The “Strengthening Protection Mechanisms for the Rights of Forcibly Displaced Persons from Nagorno-Karabakh” project is implemented by the Armenian Lawyers Association in cooperation with the “Harmony” Shushi Women’s NGO, within the framework of the “Monitoring Justice Sector Reforms in Armenia” (www.juremonia.am) project funded by the European Union.

The overall objective of the project is to promote the integration of forcibly displaced persons from Artsakh in their new communities of residence in Armenia by strengthening mechanisms for protecting their rights, raising their level of legal awareness and access to justice, and protection of their rights.

This publication was prepared with the financial support of the European Union. The Armenian Lawyers Association NGO is responsible for the content, and it does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

Details in the video.

“Seeing the announcement very accidentally, I thought this is exactly what I need, I applied through the announcement, they called me for an interview, I came for practice, and it turned out that I have been a court bailiff for 4 years now,” – she noted in a conversation with Iravaban.net, sharing her experience and presenting the steps required to join the ranks of court bailiff service employees.

She tells that the first days of work weren’t easy, fears arose when participating in court sessions, and in the initial period, one of her colleagues was necessarily with her to support and help if needed.

“After that I got used to it, now I help our newly arrived employees,” – Tatev says with a smile.

The workload at the court is high, the bailiffs’ workday starts from 08:40, they familiarize themselves with the day’s schedule, and distribute functions to be performed among each other. According to her, there are especially high-profile cases that they want to participate in without fail, to know what decision the court will ultimately make.

“The responsibility is, of course, very great, we must ensure the safety of persons entering and present in the court, we must maintain order, and these must be done within the bounds of law.”

Due to work, problems arise for the woman regarding proper time management, being with family members, child upbringing, and other issues.

“When I saw the announcement, I decided that I should apply, first I informed my husband, he said – if you want, try. For a married woman, the primary difficulty is dividing time between the workplace and family. True, this is service, but women can also combine their work with family,” – she emphasized.

Details in the video.

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